13173_doi_deposit
20220531100000
assa
nadiag@assaf.org.za
assa
South African Journal of Science
S. Afr. J. Sci
1996-7489
05312022
118
5/6
The inhibitors and enablers of emerging adult COVID-19 mitigation compliance in a township context
Linda C.
Theron
Department of Educational Psychology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3979-5782
Diane T.
Levine
Deputy Director: Leicester Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0790-4518
Michael
Ungar
Canada Research Chair: Child, Family and Community Resilience, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0431-347X
Young adults are often scapegoated for not complying with COVID-19 mitigation strategies. While studies have investigated what predicts this population’s compliance and non-compliance, they have largely excluded the insights of African young people living in South African townships. Given this, it is unclear what places young adult South African township dwellers at risk for not complying with physical distancing, face masking and handwashing, or what enables resilience to those risks. To remedy this uncertainty, the current article reports a secondary analysis of transcripts (n=119) that document telephonic interviews in June and October 2020 with 24 emerging adults (average age: 20 years) who participated in the Resilient Youth in Stressed Environments (RYSE) study. The secondary analysis, which was inductively thematic, pointed to compliance being threatened by forgetfulness; preventive measures conflicting with personal/collective style; and structural constraints. Resilience to these compliance risks lay in young people’s capacity to regulate their behaviour and in the immediate social ecology’s capacity to co-regulate young people’s health behaviours. These findings discourage health interventions that are focused on the individual. More optimal public health initiatives will be responsive to the risks and resilience-enablers associated with young people and the social, institutional, and physical ecologies to which young people are connected.
05312022
1
10.17159/sajs.2016/crossmark
sajs.co.za
false
2022-01-31
2022-03-25
2022-05-31
Canadian Institutes of Health Research
http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000024
IP2- 150708
Global Challenges Research Fund
http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100016270
Research England: S15HP10
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
10.17159/sajs.2022/13173
20220531100000
https://sajs.co.za/article/view/13173
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